This article, in a slightly edited form, first appeared on Pain News Network on December 20, 2025. On December 18, President Trump signed an executive order directing the Department of Justice to expedite completion of the process moving marijuana from an illegal Schedule I controlled substance to Schedule III, a less restrictive category that…
Read MoreThis article, in a slightly edited form, first appeared on American Council on Science and Health on December 11, 2025 It is the second in a two-part series examining the CDC’s revised autism–vaccine messaging and the broader politicization of CDC science. While Part 1 focused on the November 19, 2025 change to the CDC’s “Autism…
Read MoreThis article, in a slightly edited form, first appeared on Pain News Network on December 6, 2025. On September 1, 2025, a U.S. warplane blew apart a small speedboat in the Caribbean, killing all eleven people on board. President Trump released the video like a trailer for a new season of a drug…
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This article, in a slightly edited form, first appeared on American Council on Science and Health on December 4, 2025. This essay examines how recent political intervention has reshaped the CDC’s public messaging on vaccines and autism. In Part 1, I explain why the scientific evidence on this topic has not changed—and why the…
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This article, in a slightly edited form, first appeared on Pain News Network on November 20, 2025. “What happened?” It’s the most basic question you can ask about the opioid crisis. Yet for more than two decades, most of the answers the public has been given have been pre-packaged: greedy drug companies, corrupt “pill mill”…
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This article, in a slightly edited form, first appeared on Pain News Network on October 18, 2025. If you live with pain, you’ve probably heard promises that “something better is coming.” At this month’s Pain Therapeutics Summit in San Diego, you could see that promise taking shape. For two days, clinicians, scientists, companies and…
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This article, in a slightly edited form, first appeared in Pain Medicine News on October 15, 2025. The United States continues to face an opioid crisis marked by persistently high rates of opioid use disorder (OUD) and overdose deaths. In 2023, 8.6 million adults misused prescription analgesics. Prescription opioids can cause harm, and the risks…
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This article, in a slightly edited form, first appeared on Pain News Network on October 17, 2025. No Health Care For Lawmakers Until Every American Has Affordable Health Care By Lynn R. Webster, M.D. Millions of Americans stand on the brink of losing the Affordable Care Act (ACA) subsidies that make their health…
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I recently received a newsletter from my congressman, Rep. Blake Moore (R-Utah). While it touted many accomplishments, which I can appreciate, it also quietly sidestepped two serious issues that demand accountability. We cannot allow our representatives to polish their own images while ignoring the concerns that shape our safety, our democracy, and our health. This…
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In moments of tragedy, the words of our leaders carry extraordinary weight. They can either bring people together in shared grief or deepen the divides that already strain our communities. Following the recent killing of Charlie Kirk, Utah Governor Spencer Cox made public statements that, in my view, risked the latter. While I believe Governor…
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